Instructions

ZOOM IN by clicking on the page. A slider will appear, allowing you to adjust your zoom level. Return to the original size by clicking on the page again.

MOVE the page around when zoomed in by dragging it.

ADJUST the zoom using the slider on the top right.

ZOOM OUT by clicking on the zoomed-in page.

SEARCH by entering text in the search field and click on "In This Issue" or "All Issues" to search the current issue or the archive of back issues
respectively.
.

PRINT by clicking on thumbnails to select pages, and then press the
print button.

SHARE this publication and page.

ROTATE PAGE allows you to turn pages 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.Click on the page to return to the original orientation. To zoom in on a rotated page, return the page to its original orientation, zoom in, and
then rotate it again.

CONTENTS displays a table of sections with thumbnails and descriptions.

ALL PAGES displays thumbnails of every page in the issue. Click on
a page to jump.

MARCH 2015 • WEEK FOUR www.guardian.co.tt BUSINESS GUARDIAN
COMMENTARY | BG19
People on the East Coast of
the United States of Amer-
ica (US) and the Caribbean
should consider how best
they might lend a helping
hand to the people of the
islands of Tuvalu and Van-
uatu in the Pacific whose
lives have been shattered by Cyclone Pam that
struck them on the night of March 13.
In the case of the Caribbean islands, it is a
case of "there but for fortune go I".
A category five cyclone, called Pam, ripped
through both Vanuatu and Tuvalu -- two arch-
ipelagic countries consisting of several small
islands and atolls - creating widespread destruc-
tion. Damage was so intense that all the inhab-
itants of one of the Tuvalu islands had to be
completely evacuated. They left behind every-
thing they hold dear, and they now live in
uncertainty about when they can return and
how to start to reconstruct their lives.
The capacity of these countries to cope with
ferocious cyclones, such as Pam, and the
resilience to rebuild in the wake of huge damage,
simply do not exist. Both Vanuatu and Tuvalu
are confronted with immediate humanitarian
needs for food, shelter and fresh water. Reports
indicate that residents on some of the distant
islands have resorted to drinking salt water.
The level of the immediate suffering can only
be imagined by those who have not experienced
the cruel conditions in which people are forced
to live in the aftermath of natural disasters of
this magnitude.
The governments of Australia and New
Zealand, which are the two most developed
Commonwealth countries in the area, have
been quick to help with humanitarian assistance.
But, the islands in the two archipelagic countries
are so scattered that distribution of supplies is
severely constrained, particularly as many have
no landing strips. Britain, too, has offered help
amounting to £1m. That money will be made
immediately available to UN organisations and
international aid agencies already working in
the region.
But the lack of aid co-ordination has resulted
in uneven assistance to the people of the islands,
and in some cases to no help at all.
At the time of writing, the government of
Vanuatu announced that food will run out on
some islands within a week.
The deputy chair of the National Disaster
Committee, Benjamin Shing, has said the while
the country appreciated the aid, the initial
response could have been handled better. He
claims that the aid agencies are working on
their own rather in co-operation with the gov-
ernment. He added that "in nearly every country
in the world where they go in they have their
own operational systems, they have their own
networks and they refuse to conform to gov-
ernment directives."
In the situation that Shing describes it is the
already-suffering people who are hurt more as
resources are duplicated or wasted in one area,
and little or no help reaches others.
If, apart from Australia and New Zealand
particularly, the response to the tragedy in Van-
uatu and Tuvalu has not been impressive, the
greater and more profound problem will be the
rebuilding process.
These islands, like many in the Caribbean,
do not have the capital formation in their own
banking system to finance reconstruction. They
will have to turn to international financial insti-
tutions for help. But, if the experience of the
Caribbean is a measure of what they can expect,
rebuilding will be a long and agonising process.
Many Caribbean countries, such as Antigua
and Barbuda, Grenada and Dominica, lost more
than three years of gross domestic product
(GDP) in 24 hours when hurricanes devastated
them.
Anxious to rebuild in the wake of such mas-
sively destructive hurricanes, the governments
of these countries were forced into the com-
mercial market to secure financing to rebuild
infrastructure, even while their revenues were
declining from decreased production. Hotels
closed, agricultural production ceased and man-
ufacturing halted.
The result was an increase in the national
debt and uncomfortable levels of debt to GDP
ratios of more than 100 per cent.
These countries had no option. They either
had to borrow to rebuild and restart their
economies or face soaring unemployment,
increase in poverty and inadequate investment
in health and education services.
Right now, Vanuatu and Tuvalu are rightly
focused on alleviating the suffering of their
people. But, the bigger and more fundamental
problem of rebuilding---and how to pay for it---
already looms large.
Australia s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has
told the Tuvalu Prime Minister, Enele Sopoaga,
that her government would support longer-
term recovery and reconstruction efforts. Van-
uatu will also need that help. Australia alone
cannot provide it, nor should it be expected to.
As Richard Bourne of the Ramphal Institute
observed recently, "with erratic climate events
and sea level rise it is time for the global com-
munity to take more seriously the growing risks
for island archipelagos, especially low-lying
atoll states in the Pacific and Caribbean. In a
single year a storm can knock 10 per cent off
gdp, and certain communities are already being
withdrawn from shorelines where ocean levels
have risen. This is a particular challenge for
the Commonwealth, where the Ramphal Insti-
tute estimates that there are some ten inde-
pendent and dependent territories which might
be under water in 2100."
In its report to Commonwealth Heads of
Government, "A Commonwealth of the People:
Time for Urgent Reform", the Eminent Persons
Group of which I was a member had recom-
mended that the 53-nation Commonwealth
establish a disaster management capacity.
Unfortunately the recommendation was not
implemented. The details of the mechanism
are laid out in the report. Suffice to say that
the proposal sought to establish a rapid Com-
monwealth response to natural disasters;
machinery for disaster preparation and miti-
gation; and the means to help mobilise con-
cessionary financing for rebuilding.
Both Vanuatu and Tuvalu could have ben-
efited enormously from such a disaster man-
agement capacity within the Commonwealth
of which they are two of the smallest and most
vulnerable of member states. The Common-
wealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma,
called for Commonwealth help immediately
after the destructive passage of Cyclone Pam,
but the Commonwealth should be doing more
at times of tragedy if it is to be relevant to the
people of its member states.
Let us hope that the tragedy in Vanuatu and
Tuvalu is a wake-up call. Hurricanes in the
Caribbean and cyclones in the Pacific are not
going away. They are clear and present dan-
gers.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Institute
of Commonwealth Studies at London University.
RONALD
SANDERS
www.sirronaldsanders.com
Inadequate response to human suffering
Vanuatu and Tuvalu